Sleeping Stars
by Largeham-sama
Summary: Time approaches death's door. The last vestiges of the Spiral dominion have disappeared, leaving the empty husk of the universe behind. But as Viral prepares for his final rest, he becomes entangled in a desperate plot to overcome despair one last time.
1. Prologue

The end.

It was something that had to come eventually, wasn't it? Even after all the joy and suffering, war and peace, trials and tribulations, there still had to be a point where it all stopped. Everything was finite, or so it seemed. All the talk of endless spirals and surpassing infinity - he had never paid too much attention anyway, but it seemed they might be empty words after all.

And for him, the end couldn't come quickly enough.

For untold billions of years he had watched, unable to put a stop to anything, even his own torment. But even as humanity went through its turbulent societal cycles, he managed to find a little peace. Time passed quickly in a universe full of excitement and expansion. From golden age to crumbling ruin, he had been one of the few to see it all, and he could not deny that he had found every moment fascinating. He had traveled far and wide, seeking every novelty he could. From four-dimensional battlegrounds to amethyst rainforests; from palaces the size of continents to worlds of ice and desert, he had traveled and eased the boredom of eternity.

But then, one by one, the stars began to fade.

It was gradual at first. A few worlds cut off from salvation. A sun would burn out here and there. These events went unheeded even by the species they affected. After all, the universe was a very big place.

Soon, entire galaxies were starved of heat and light. The rate of heat death only accelerated. Fear and despair seized the hearts of the masses as their leaders struggled to find a way, a shining path to restoration. But there was none. The achievements of ages were abandoned as civilization descended into panic and barbarism, and the major Spiral realms shrunk, their power stuttering, their systems splintering and shattering.

Unity was abandoned. Lonely planets struggled to survive the decay, isolated from any allies by countless lightyears of growing emptiness. By the present day, humankind itself had been whittled down to a collection of scavenger bands, doing their best to live on by scrabbling for lost technology and supplies. Through the forlorn ruins of their former domain, they hunted, competing for resources like packs of animals.

The great collapse neared its conclusion. A few dim lanterns still hung from the sky, but the Spiral races were all but extinct, and their old glories reduced to crumbling rocks drifting through the quiet end times.

And so it was, that at long last, Viral's death was in sight.

Just like the lost worlds, he remained still, letting fate pull him wherever it would until the final hour. He cast a few thoughts back to his early life. The creator who doomed him to this hell, the man who reforged it into a paradise, and the children of the bright future; their faces came to him one by one. How sad it was that their time had gone, and the time of their children, and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and every generation after, until their perfect world was reduced to this greying corpse.

Viral was suspended in an endless night, an abyss without borders filled with nothing but a few specks of ash. His last act would be to count down until the moment he could finally be released from it all.

But even as hope was eclipsed once and for all, the last stars let out their feeble light, calling him across the all-consuming graveyard.

The universe was not quite dead.


	2. The Hero

Iced earth cracked beneath the feet of the wanderers. Misted breath gathered in great billowing clouds as thickly gloved hands wiped the frost from encrusted metal. Every day, the world grew colder, yet they eked out a living, pale shadows stealing from the dead. Hopes and goals had been put aside; living was enough. Every day brought with it the simple challenge of finding food and warmth - wishes and aspirations meant nothing anymore.

But still Kane dreamed. He dreamed of a place where everyone knew his name, where fires burned and windows were lit - a future of warmth and security, inconceivable in the hellish present. He dreamed of the past, when he had sat on his father's knee and heard stories about heroes, gods and monsters. How he had craved the excitement of living in such a story! But the heroes were dead, the gods had stopped caring, and the monsters were picking off their last prey.

'Kane! Get over here, I need to shift this giant hunk'a scrap!'

Back to cold reality. He was one of a group of scavengers, scouring the ruins of this freezing, godforsaken planet for the supplies and technology of a people long since faded into history. Old pieces of heating infrastructure, preserved food, and weapons were the treasure for which they dug, and sometimes they found it. But frequently they would go hungry and cold, forced to huddle miserably in any shelter they could find.

At the moment they were unearthing something vitally important, the kind of prize they usually took years to come by. It was an ancient machine, a combined transport and military utility used by the original inhabitants of this frigid, barren realm. Worn, faded markings designated them as 'Grapearls', and they were valued immensely by the scavengers.

Kane hurried to help his cohorts shift the debris covering the giant, taking a monumental slab of iron and pushing it across the Grapearl's width with great effort. Beside him the pale, laconic Selene worked away, without complaint as usual. One had the impression that the woman could not even be bothered to bemoan her situation.

The louder members of the crew, on the other hand, were on top form.

'Kane, what the blazes are you doing! Pull it, don't push, it's closer to your edge- no, wrong way, wrong way! Gah, do I have to do everything myself? You want to move it towards you. Towaaaaards you.' Carla, a tempestuous redhead with delusions of authority, was serving the usual chastisement in response to Kane's incompetence and lack of work ethic.

To his surprise, the group's leader, grizzled, antisocial Saul, reprimanded her in turn. 'Hypocrisy, lil' woman. If you're gonna mouth off at the other guys you've gotta sweat too!'

'Ah, s-sorry, sir.'

Kane smirked with satisfaction and finished clearing the torso of metal and concrete.

'Doesn't mean yer allowed to slack off, kid! Move it!'

Kane's smirk disappeared as he began to apply himself to the task with more diligence.

The clearing procedure took the better part of three hours, with the team's poor coordination slowing what would otherwise have been an easier job. Eventually, the swathes of scrap metal were cleared from the titan's hull, leaving its frozen skin desperately trying to gleam in the feeble starlight. Exhausted, the scavenger crew lit a fire and took a well-deserved break near the Grapearl.

'This is a mighty fine one, kid,' said Saul, gesturing at the icy frame while handing Kane his rations. 'If we can get it to the old caves, we'll have a bunch of the things, so I'm thinkin', if I take this one,' he paused to consume a mouthful of barely-thawed meat, 'you can have the ol' Horus. I know it's a little rundown, but we've got two more to make up fer it now, so you should get by.'

Kane nodded. 'It's enough having my own Grapearl. Every single one of those things is like a superweapon and amazing transport rolled into one.'

'Aw, geez, you mean I'll have this idiot running around as my wingman now?' pouted Carla. Though stung by her words, Kane put on a confident, daredevil front.

'You'll see. I'mma show you up every single mission. Watch your back, lady, you've got some serious competition coming your way!'

'Hmph,' she grunted, returning to her meagre meal.

As the fire soothed Kane's chilled body, he gazed skywards. An odd longing was within him. Far, far away in the distance, lay three pinpricks of light, sad, weak and dying. They were the sleeping stars, ever fading, as the rhythms of life slowed and stopped. Days, nights, weeks, months. None of them mattered anymore. The scavengers lived in an eternal arctic night, serene yet forlorn.

Soon afterwards, the march back to the caves began. To take this new discovery back to their assumed base they would need the Grapearls they already had. The wet, cold paths wore at their feet, but they struggled on as ever, Saul's gruff rhetoric driving them on through the bitter cold. After a point, they reached the caves, hurrying into the warm shelter.

The caves were dark and cavernous, the walls dry and dusty. Deep grey rock covered the floor and sides, with chunks of odd, off-white crystal poking through. It was here that they rested, the closest place they had to a home. Unfortunately, they could waste no time here, lest other scavengers make off with the treasure they had unearthed - they climbed into the Grapearls, two to each machine, and left again.

The conditions outside had worsened. It only ever got colder as the last light and warmth continued to grow weaker and more distant. Howling gales had struck up a blizzard, flecks of ice rushing across the Grapearls as the screaming wind threatened to toss them into the ground. Visibility became poor, every sight blurred by motion and obscured by racing snow.

By the time the wanderers arrived at their prize, it was buried under fresh ice, but it had not become locked yet, and they easily broke it out.

'Phew,' remarked Kane. 'Looks like the whole world is against us.'

'World's always against us,' said Saul. 'Then again, pretty soon there ain't gonna be a world to go against us.'

The scavengers hauled the Grapearl away, working in tandem to drag it back to the deep caves, retracing their steps as they had done a hundred times before. The snow was beginning to settle down again, the fresh white drifts glistening in morbid starlight. The same wearing journey was made, this time even longer due to the harshness of the elements. But the scavengers had learned the importance of perseverance through their years of hardship and misery. Something as simple as a snowstorm would never stop them in their tracks.

They arrived outside the caves, anticipating the chance for warmth and rest, rushing to get back into their haven. In doing so, they failed to notice a bright new point in the sky beginning its descent, seemingly on a crash course with the sharp plains of ice...

In a better time, the sun would have risen, clear and bright, healing the aches of the land as soft clouds drifted through clear blue expanses. But no, the night simply carried on, stretching into a bleak infinity.

Kane rose early, ready to begin his new role as another Grapearl pilot. He made his way to the bulky frame of Horus, noticing that Saul was already up doing maintenance for the new unit.

'It's yours, Kane. Don't screw it up!' called Saul. Kane nodded and hopped into the cockpit.

By the time everyone was awake and ready, Kane was itching to leave. He had only piloted the Horus a few times before, and he had never had it for any major excursions. He only remembered the empowering feel it gave him - it made him free, mobile, able to run and fight.

Their plan that day was to head to the ruins of a major city, with their greater number of Grapearls hopefully warding off any rival scavengers and lessening the dangers that were normally part of such a mission.

The storm had ended, leaving a new, smooth, untarnished blanket of frost across the landscape. The clear, pale colouration made a striking contrast with the emptiness overhead. Kane noticed their mechs forming huge footprints in the snow, crunching as they did. Wet, miserable rocks and faded, shattered machinery had disappeared beneath the furious onslaught. The everlasting winter had refreshed itself.

The scavengers now made quick progress, with the winds calmed, better visibility and their energy restored by a period of rest. Kane was excited for the first time in months, the fast, powerful feel of Horus making him increasingly giddy. Together with the others, Isis and the newly-dubbed Set, it cut a rapid path through the thick, soft banks of snow. The world seemed almost... peaceful.

Until they came across something truly startling.

A massive crater had been blasted into the ice, clearly marking a recent impact - a very forceful one, at that. Confirming this was the limp, odd-looking mech huddled at the centre of the crater, unmoving.

It was really a curious, alien machine. Completely silver, it had no visible head, but its torso bore a vast, menacing face. Its three sets of arms and bladelike crest only added to the oddness of its appearance. Yet it had a sense of immense age to it; the scars on its skin, the pits and corruptions, and dulled sheen seemed to connote an age beyond even Saul's.

Cautiously, they descended from their transports, nervously picking their way towards the bizarre figure at the epicentre of the crater. Kane wondered hether Saul planned to comandeer this one as well, but their leader's eyes spoke only fear and wonder. He was as mystified as they were.

They came before the mountain of metal, awed by the ancient atmosphere. It felt older than the broken cities themselves, a relic from an age of sound and colour. Kane held his breath as he reached out and touched the rusted surface of its armour.

Instantly regretting his mistake, he jumped as the titan shifted and groaned, smoke pouring from its orifices, soon obscuring the entire behemoth from view.

'Kane, you eejit, whaddaya have to go do that for!' yelled Saul as they hastily backed away.

In the midst of the smoke, atop the venerable mech, the silhouette of a humanoid appeared. The scavengers could do nothing but wait and wonder who could possibly be alive in such an old mech after such a massive crash. The apparition clambered down the steel slopes, sliding to the ground and beginning to emerge from the steadily parting smoke.

The dust faded, revealing the haunting apparition's face.

He was a creature quite unlike any they had seen before. At first glance, he was simply a tall, prawny man with pale, scarred skin and white, shaggy, unkempt hair. However, closer inspection revealed decidedly inhuman features. Tw rows of jagged, sharklike teeth lined his mouth, his nails were vicious, feline claws and his eyes... Kane would never forget his eyes.

Those two catlike, feral eyes had countless aeons behind them. To gaze into them was to look upon something that had witnessed the birth and death of gods, the rise of civilizations and the last knells of imploding suns.

'Wh... who are you?' asked Carla shakily.

'So,' growled the ancient, 'I wake up after centuries and this is what I find. A bunch of tramps stumbling round a cold, dead planet. Care to explain why you've woken me up?'

'Woken you up? I-'

'Ah, another unintentional. Aren't they always? Well, looks like that still wasn't my last sleep. Maybe I should start looking for another way to finish things off...'

They could only gape at the alien and his incomprehensible words. Noticing their shock and bewilderment, he adressed them for the first time.

'You chumps want to know who I am? Back when the universe wasn't down to its last dregs, they called me Viral. But names don't mean shit anymore. You guys want to know **what **I am, don't you?'

Kane nodded feebly.

'I'm the last of the beastmen, a race of hybrids genetically engineered by a conceited monkey billions of years ago. That same monkey figured that making me immortal meant I could sing his victories forever, or some shit like that. Those tyrant types are all the same. Anyway, he kicked the bucket straight after, and then again a few years later as if he wasn't dead enough, leaving me with no way to die, and so I've lived all these years, making me...'

Even Selene's eyes widened at his next statement.

'...one of the three oldest beings in existence, if I'm right. I think that's probably the first thing you noticed, the age, am I right?'

Saul nodded again.

'Nothing can kill me. Not fire, ice, blades, bullets, starvation, explosions, suffocation... and that's all nowhere near as fun as it sounds. I got bored halfway through the lifespan of the universe, but it turns out I literally have no way to die. I'm hoping the end of everything will finally give me my damn death, but if not... looks like God'll have to invite me into heaven himself.'

Kane could only stare.

'Well, enough about me. Who are you, and where am I?'

Saul shook himself and spoke up. 'We're scavengers, not much more'n that. Only thing ya can do at a time like this. No idea what this place used to be called, but it's a settled one alright - well, it was. Same as every other rock now. Dead. Frozen. Pointless.'

'Hmmm... and you've never considered getting offworld?'

'We wouldn't know how, or where to go. Kinda 'ssumed everywhere else was as boned as this place.'

Viral chuckled. His laughter was somehow dispassionate, though not cruel - simply distant and uncaring. The beastman's unfathomable eyes twinkled a little as he dropped the line that would begin a journey to the very end of ends and beyond.

'Then I believe, dear people, that I may be the ticket to your salvation...'


End file.
